May 11th Sunday Sermon Manuscript

Revelation 7:9–17

“They Have Changed”

1. Last week, we talked about the theme of changing direction—not doing God’s work through what we want to do, but rather obeying what God is leading us to, whether we like it or not. Today, I want to continue with that idea. This change of direction could also be called repentance, conversion, maturity, or a question of priorities. Today, we will explore how those who have chosen to live in the direction of Jesus' life have been changed.

2. The passage we read today comes from the Book of Revelation. A common misunderstanding of Revelation is that people only view it through an apocalyptic lens. Many dramatists have also taken the mysterious elements of this book to create movies or novels, which has led people to interpret any unexpected or similar real-life events as signs of the end times. This tendency is problematic.

3. A few years ago, during a massive wildfire, the smoke rose higher than expected, darkening the sky even in the middle of the day. Someone called me and asked, “Pastor! Is Jesus coming back right now?” I was taken aback, and since it was during the pandemic, the whole situation made people anxious. It was a natural disaster we had never experienced before, but interpreting such events by force-fitting them into biblical prophecy—like saying it means Jesus is returning—is a typical example of misreading Scripture.

4. Revelation is especially susceptible to these misinterpretations. It doesn’t use typical language and is filled with symbolic and visionary expressions that are unusual. If modern readers don’t understand the historical context, they tend to interpret it literally or miss the bigger picture.

5. What’s clear is this: in his most desperate hour, John dreamed and hoped for the amazing work that God would do. Just like we, in our own desperate or hopeless moments, long for someone’s clear help and support, John’s Revelation testifies to his firm belief that God would never abandon us in our trials.

6. Right now, my most desperate hope is that our upcoming pilgrimage will go well and be filled with grace. It might seem like a simple trip, but for the pastor organizing it—especially since it’s a joint event prepared by the Korean Caucus of the Northern California UMC—I want it to be successful. Yet even before we depart, we’re encountering many obstacles.

7. Another deep desire of mine is for the Unity Youth Retreat to end well. In recent years, unexpected difficulties have made it hard to host these joint events. Youth groups in churches are shrinking, and the energy needed to prepare retreats has diminished due to recent challenges. It’s not easy.

8. One pastor said to me, “Let’s just stop doing this. Don’t go through this trouble alone.” Honestly, those words were quite comforting. It seemed like the logical and reasonable choice. Why go through such mental and physical hardship?

9. Perhaps people said the same to John in the early church. Of course, their pain and desperation may not be comparable, but people may have said to John, “You’re suffering so much. Just give up and come back to the Jewish community.” Or perhaps there were those who mocked him, saying, “Where is your Jesus now? Let’s see what God will do.”

10. Yet in this long, unrelenting persecution, John rejected the choice of giving up or apostasy in favor of temporary peace. Instead, he chose to dream, hope, and pray about what God would do in the center of deep suffering and persecution. That’s how Revelation came to be written.

11. At the time Revelation was written, Rome was expanding emperor worship throughout the empire. The Romans had their own method of colonial rule—they sought to unify the empire by demanding worship of the emperor as a god.

12. This policy eventually led to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple—every stone of it. Infuriated by a statue of the emperor placed in front of the temple, the Jews revolted. Rome responded by destroying the temple and crushing the rebellion. Around this same time, the famous Masada event occurred, where Jews who refused to worship the emperor made a final stand. Surrounded by Roman forces, they took their own lives, including their children’s, rather than surrender. This act became a symbol of Jewish resistance. Today, you can look down from Masada and see the site of Israel’s final military training exercises.

13. This kind of persecution didn’t spare the church. John sent Revelation as a letter to the seven churches of Asia Minor because he wanted the church to stay strong in faith during this persecution. With hope and trust in the supernatural hand of God, who would ultimately bring victory, he wrote this vision.

14. Though the reality was crumbling, this desperate confession that God would do a new thing was extraordinary and rare at that time. I believe the most important message of Revelation is this: that in any hardship or suffering, we must not stop expecting the dreams God will fulfill. This is the essence of what makes Christians different. That’s why I titled the sermon, “They Have Changed.” Because I imagine that’s what people said about the early Christians who remained steadfast in persecution: “They have changed.”

15. Verse 9 introduces a great multitude that no one could count. In the earlier verses, this group was numbered exactly as 144,000, but here it’s changed to “a great multitude that no one could count.” This numerical difference in Revelation is symbolic and metaphorical. Don’t stress over which number is “correct”—just understand it as “a vast crowd.” Numbers in Revelation are symbolic and should not be taken literally.

16. The passage continues: they are standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches. This image of waving palm branches while dressed in white is also found in Isaiah 65, which was written during the post-exilic period—a time signaling the end of suffering and the beginning of restoration. And as you may know, waving palm branches was also how crowds welcomed Jesus as He entered Jerusalem.

17. John is asking his readers, in the midst of extreme suffering, to remember those moments—post-exile restoration and the crowd welcoming Jesus as the son of David. He is declaring that the suffering will eventually end and that the multitude shouting “Hosanna” to Jesus will gather again.

18. Verse 10 quotes Psalm 118: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” John’s letter clearly places the foundation of hope in one place: Jesus Christ, our Savior, even in the midst of persecution.

19. We, too, may one day experience unexpected tribulation. Or maybe we’re living in it right now. Some of us even sense that similar events are coming. This may feel unfamiliar, but it’s said that over 90% of our anxiety comes from things that haven’t even happened yet. That’s just the nature of life—we often worry about what hasn’t come to pass.

20. These anxieties can cause us to forget who we are, who God is, and whether we have truly been saved through Christ.

21. Likewise, trials, worries, suffering, and persecution can lead us to forget that we are Christians who believe in Jesus.

22. Revelation is John’s urgent letter to churches that might lose sight of this. John’s intent is clear: no matter the situation, don’t forget who you are, who God is, and what it means to live as someone saved through Christ.

23. John used every ounce of his imagination to confess the victorious Lord. What stands out here is that he used “every imagination.” That may confuse us today when reading the text, but this same imagination is available to us.

24. When I’m going through the hardest times, I look at the distant mountains and reflect. I imagine what might be. When we moved our church to Orinda, I prayed and prepared a lot—but I think what I did most was imagine.

25. Some may say imagination is just a vague dream. But holding on to such a dream, the Israelites left Egypt, David became king, and Solomon built a prosperous kingdom. Every prophet in the Old Testament resisted the reality before them and proclaimed the new path that God would lead—declaring things that didn’t match current reality to the people of Israel.

26. The scholar Walter Brueggemann coined the phrase “prophetic imagination.” Jesus, who saved us, proclaimed the kingdom of God that He envisioned during His public ministry. And now, as suffering threatens the church, we are invited to encounter the imagination that John shared.

27. Perhaps we could describe faith as: How far can we stretch our imagination? In another way, you could say that the church is being built through a collective, God-given imagination.

28. The imagination I speak of isn’t fantasy. It’s everything we can dream of while walking with God.

29. I imagined things like this: “Let’s request a loan from the conference and renovate the church building. Since the weather is hotter than expected, we should install a new air conditioner and heater. Let’s make the Sunday school and youth worship spaces operate at the same time as the adult service. Let’s build a café so people can enjoy coffee.” And most of these have come true.

30. I also imagine: “It would be nice to build a dog park on the church grounds. Let’s lay down a deck on the side of the café that faces the neighborhood so people can gather under parasols after worship. The city of Orinda approved 56 units for development under their housing element—let’s include a community center there, where we can worship on Sundays and serve the community during the week. Since English-speaking folks are visiting, let’s start an English service. At first we can hold it at a different time, and later maybe worship together at the same time.” These are the dreams I am praying for and imagining for Yeolin Church today.

31. How do you think all this is happening? I’m not just listing what I want to do. In my experience, the things I want for myself are usually blocked. But what God leads and desires—those things unfold, one dream at a time.

32. What changed the disciples and John in Revelation? Now they could dream. They were led to imagine God’s abundance and presence.

33. The reality? Yes, it was painful. There was immense suffering. And yet, in the midst of that, being able to imagine such things—that is what we mean when we say, “They have changed.”

34. I hope that now, through this collective imagination, we can continue building Yeolin Church together. I believe God will certainly lead us beyond our expectations to dream of His abundance and presence.